Arizona Republicans Block Democratic Efforts To Repeal Abortion Ban (Again)

 

Believe them when they tell you who they are the first second time:

After days of nationwide debate over the Arizona supreme court’s recent decision to uphold a near-total abortion ban from the 19th century, Arizona’s Republican-controlled statehouse has again quashed an effort to repeal the ban.

Republicans, who hold a one-seat majority in both the Arizona house and senate, on Wednesday shot down a procedural measure in the statehouse that would have enabled the chamber to vote on a bill to repeal the ban. Just one Republican, the representative Matt Gress, voted with the house’s 29 Democrats, but the 30-30 split was not enough to move forward.

Wednesday marked the second time that state legislators have tried to repeal the ban, which was first passed in 1864, since the state supreme court ruling. Last week, Gress tried to bring forth a vote on the repeal bill. However, he then voted with other Republicans to recess until Wednesday...

Even after the first time Democrats tried to repeal the ban, causing some frightened career pols to start furiously lying and backpedaling on their extremist stances on abortion rights, the Christofascist MAGAt Republicans just couldn't help themselves and blocked repeal of the ban again.  It's in the DNA of their cult.  It's their patriarchal fundamentalism that has its origins even earlier than the 1864 law they want to keep on the books. "The Handmaid's Tale" analogy has been overworked at times, but if Gilead isn't the model for Arizona that Christofascist MAGAt Republicans want, we can't think of a more accurate one.

These mossback loons hold a one- seat majority in both the Arizona House and Senate.  That needs to change in November.

(Photo:  Arizona Christofascist MAGAt Republicans applaud blocking repeal effort / Matt York, AP)

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

The Russian military will soon exhaust its combat capabilities and be forced to bring its offensive in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region to a grinding halt, according to Western intelligence predictions and military experts.

“There will come a time when the tiny advances Russia is making become unsustainable in light of the costs and they will need a significant pause to regenerate capability,” said a senior Western official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue.  [snip]

But the “creeping” advances are dependent almost entirely on the expenditure of vast quantities of ammunition, notably artillery shells, which are being fired at a rate almost no military in the world would be able to sustain for long, said the senior Western official.

Russia, meanwhile, is continuing to suffer heavy losses of equipment and men, calling into question how much longer it can remain on the attack, the official said.  [snip]

Russian commentators are also noting the challenges, emphasizing a chronic shortage of manpower. “Russia does not have enough physical strength in the zone of the special military operation in Ukraine … taking into account the almost one thousand kilometer (or more) line of confrontation,” wrote Russian military blogger Yuri Kotyenok on his Telegram account. He estimated that Russia would need 500,000 troops to attain its goals, which would only be possible with a large-scale mobilization, a potentially risky and unpopular move that President Vladimir Putin has so far refrained from undertaking.

The bad:

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood, it repudiated the very idea that America’s highest court exists to protect people’s fundamental liberties from legislative majorities that would infringe on them. [snip]

The right to an abortion was based on the principle of a living Constitution that evolves to expand liberty and equality. That same master principle of modern constitutional law provided the grounding for Brown v. Board of Education, ending segregation. It was the basis for Obergefell v. Hodges, finding a right to same-sex marriage. It is the same principle that undergirds dozens of other decisions establishing rights we today consider fundamental, from sexual freedom to stop and seizure, that were not considered similarly basic in 1791 when the Bill of Rights was ratified or in 1868 when the 14th Amendment was.

In place of the living Constitution that protects liberty and equality from the tyranny of the majority, the court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization announced a Constitution that only protects rights that already existed in the distant past. The majority considered it irrelevant that the people who ratified the original constitutional provisions did not include women, whose rights are at issue in Dobbs and whose equality is derogated by the decision. According to the majority, the dead hand of the past rules our constitutional future.

The ugly:

On Friday, amidst the chaos of the news of the Supreme Court's ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade, QAnon's 'Q' left the first new series of messages since 2020.

The first message — "Shall we play a game once more?" — was left using 'Q's credentials on what Daily Beast refers to as an "anarchic internet community" called 8kun, and was later followed up with "Are you ready to serve your country again?" and then a third reading "Remember your oath."

When a member of the board replied to one of the messages saying "Throw us a bone Q, we've all been waiting for what seemed like an eternity. What's going on?" Q replied "It had to be done this way."  [snip]

The basis of QAnon's belief system is that the Democratic world is run by Satan-worshipping pedophiles and that an event called "The Storm," will one day take place where their enemies will be executed via orders from a military tribunal. According to The Guardian, support of QAnon has increased since Trump left the White House.

The grifters/ Russian cutouts are back, ready to vacuum out the pockets of gullible submorons and create as much chaos and violence as possible.   "Throw us a bone, Q" one said.  Well, there's enough solid bone in that mark's head that they shouldn't need any supplements.

A Watershed Week In American History

 

It's hard to remember if or when we had a week filled with more consequential events that the one just passed.  Consider:

-- The "disastrously intemperate" Republican Supreme Court's nullification of a 50- year precedent in overturning Roe v. Wade which stripped millions of women the right to control their own reproductive health and permanently damaged the Court's legitimacy;

-- The Court's nullification of a state's right to regulate gun safety, specifically New York State's concealed carry restrictions which have stood for over a century;

-- The Court's undermining a centuries old ban on direct state aid to the schools teaching religion, fundamental to the principle of separation of church and state;

-- Further evidence of the widespread conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 election, with testimony at the January 6 insurrection hearing from former Justice Department officials on the direct involvement of the Malignant Loser, his closest advisors and Republican officials from battleground states to forward fraudulent electors on January 6, 2021;  and of the "consciousness of guilt" inquiries about obtaining pardons by a number of the Malignant Loser's Congressional MAGA sedition caucus.

-- The first gun safety legislation in 30 years was signed by President Biden this morning, a small step in the right direction that was constrained by the unwillingness of the Republican Party to get out of the pocket of the National Rifle Rampage Association.

All of this, we are told, is on the ballot in November.  Expanding rights vs. restricting rights; sensible gun safety vs. reckless inaction;  a secular republic vs. a theocracy; truth vs. lies; democracy vs. autocracy.  The majority of the American public is behind the Democratic Party's position on each of these;  even Republicans sense the danger in their some of their most absolutist approaches (see below).  In just a week, we've seen how quickly the country can change for the worse, and why, yes, elections have consequences.  In every election at every level from now on, weighing anything other than these top line choices when voting is delusional ... and suicidal.

BONUS:  Heather Cox Richardson on the end of an era.

Quotes Of The Day -- They're Coming For It All

"Friday’s ruling was another reminder, for a country that needs no more, that Americans cannot take for granted the freedoms they enjoy. Their decisions, particularly how and whether they vote, can have direct, dramatic and negative consequences for their lives. A decades-long conservative crusade to nullify federal abortion rights has now succeeded, because Senate Republicans underhandedly stacked the court with justices who have proved to be disastrously intemperate. This tragic moment should wake Americans to reality:  They must defend their rights, or they are liable to lose them." -- Washington Post editorial board this morning (our emphasis)

____________________

"The crowd began gathering a little after 10, when the word came down that the Court’s decision in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was every bit as bad as it was long feared to be. Pro-choice activists waved signs and chanted and sang. Anti-choice activists waved signs and chanted and sang, and prayed to whatever God they believe ordained that, if you have a Glock, you have more rights than if you have a uterus. Reading the 6-3 majority opinion, and the dissents thereto, is like wandering through a legal nightmare of the 19th Century. And in one line in his concurrence, Justice Clarence Thomas, who is the de facto Chief these days since, plainly, nobody’s listening to John Roberts any more, makes that awful specter into grim reality.

'In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, & Obergefell.'

"They’re coming for it all, people. That’s what this carefully engineered radical conservative majority was bought and paid for. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse was absolutely right when he rose on the Senate floor last July 27, and tried to explain what he called The Scheme—the long-march campaign to buy a hardcore conservative majority on the Supreme Court." -- Charles P. Pierce, in Esquire, on "The Hard Right Has Gotten What It Paid For" (our emphasis).  More evidence of this, if any was needed, was the statement from Mike Pence -- yesterday's "hero" who's quickly reverted back to the Christofascist windsock he's always been -- that abortions should be banned nationwide, a position opposed by the vast majority of Americans (just like overturning Roe was).  Other prominent Republicans have made it clear that this is the ultimate goal, which can be accomplished as early as 2024, with the election of a Republican President and a Republican House and Senate.  

But overturning Griswold (contraception), Lawrence (same-sex sexual activity) and Obergefell (same-sex marriage) only requires a lawsuit bubbling up to this radical, ultra- reactionary SCOTUS for the march backwards to continue, and Clarence Thomas has openly invited them.

 

Overturning Roe v. Wade: Excerpts From Dissent

 

Yesterday, Justices Breyer, Kagan, and Sotomayor issued their dissent (authored by Justice Breyer) in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (19-1392), which overturned 50 years of precedent and removed the right to reproductive freedom for American women.  Here are some of the passages we thought were key to that dissent:

(p. 4 of Dissent)

 

(p. 14 of Dissent)

 

(p. 20 of Dissent)

 

(p. 57 of Dissent)

(p. 60 of Dissent)

BREAKING: Goodbye Roe v. Wade

 

As expected, the Republican Christofascist troglodytes on the Supreme Court have ended 50 years of reproductive freedom for women in a 6-3 decision:

The Supreme Court on Friday overturned the fundamental right to abortion established nearly 50 years ago in Roe v. Wade, a stunning reversal that leaves states free to drastically reduce or even outlaw a procedure that abortion rights groups said is key to women’s equality and independence.  [snip]

The tremors from Friday’s Supreme Court decision will ripple across the country almost immediately, with roughly half of all states poised to ban or drastically restrict abortion.

Thirteen states will outlaw abortion within 30 days with “trigger bans,” designed to take effect as soon as Roe was overturned. These laws make an exception for cases where the mother’s life is in danger, but most do not include exceptions for rape or incest.

More outrage to follow ...

BONUS:  With voters wanting Roe v. Wade and women's reproductive choice to stand by a wide margin, this should be an "elections have consequences" wake up call in 2022 and beyond. Speaker Pelosi vows to make it a top issue for Republicans to defend.

BONUS II:  Here is a rundown of States where "trigger laws" curtailing or banning abortion are in effect as of today's ruling.